Japanese design

[Will Owen <nashwill912@domain.elided>]

Colin Talcroft said -

"It also reminds me of a Japanese special I saw not too
long ago on TV (Japanese satellite broadcasts) about
the creation of the Nissan "Fair Lady" (the "240Z" to
people here). The designer openly acknowledged his
admiration of Pninfarina."

That designer wasn't even Japanese - it was Albrecht Goertz (otherwise known as "Count Albrecht von Goertz," apparently another "styling" job), the guy who did the BMW 507. Before that, he also had done an extremely pretty 4-seater coupe for Nissan, the first Silvia, which we never saw over here except in pictures...or was that a Bertone job? Help, somebody...

The first Japanese cars (Toyopets and Bluebirds - oog!) I ever saw were emphatically NOT copies of anything Western, which is why they were at first a hard sell - that, and their occasionally primitive underpinnings (the leaf-sprung front axle stayed late to that party). I really liked the looks of the early-'60s Datsun sedans, the ones just before the 510, and came very close to buying one a couple of years ago. Its mechanical details could be considered a "ripoff" of the typical English small saloon of a few years before, especially since its pushrod engine was a close copy of the BMC B block. The big
difference was how well screwed-together everything was. Imagine a late-'50s British car that actually started every time and didn't oil your driveway! ;-)

Will Owen
Pasadena. CA
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